Bike Talk with Dave: All things bike! Bikepacking, cyclocross, gravel, mountain bike, road & events

In it's 15 years, the Garmin Gravel Worlds has become one of the biggest gravel events on the U.S. calendar. Boasting a heritage of champions that range from Trans-Iowa alumni to World Tour cyclists - and all without huge prize purses - until now. Recently, a $30,000 prize purse was announced for the elite mens and women's races - but along with that, they will also be donating another $30,000 to...

If you’ve been tuning in through this past winter, you have likely heard of my big scary adventure coming up next winter - what will be my first fat bike winter ultra at the Arrowhead 135 - a 135-mile adventure through the remote wilderness of northern Minnesota in late January - it starts in International Falls and is known for it’s bitter cold temperatures and deep snow - and while it’s not alwa...

Since starting this podcast more than two years ago, I’ve wanted to talk to a team that had completed the Cape Epic together - Well, a couple months ago I saw that good friend of the podcast Hannah Shell was headed to South Africa with a friend of hers Starla Teddergreen - so I immediately shot her a note asking if the two of them would come on when they got home from the other side of the world a...

Josh Sprague is as much an addict to endurance sports as the rest of us, and you know as well as anyone when a piece of equipment just isn't quite right. With weekends filled with adventure races, ultra marathons and long mountain bike rides, Josh just couldn't find the right hydration pack, so he built one. He liked it so much, he and his wife made the decision to dive in and founded Orange Mud a...

As a full-time working couple with kids, a house and everything that comes with that, it's a challenge to pick and choose what events to attend throughout the year - but this one comes easy. It's not just a gravel race, it's a weekend long festival of camping, food, music, beers, bike rides and great West Texas hospitality! (and a few snakes) This was our second year (Dee and Dave's) at the Rattle...

Sherry Ott's journey - riding her bicycle from state capitol to state capitol, began with her father, Lee, in 1984. In nearly 30 years he connected 23 capitols on foot. Fast forward another almost 10 years and a pandemic later, Sherry would pick up the project, but this time on bicycle. As a travel blogger, adventure and travel isn't new to Sherry - however an adventurous project like this, inside...

Tuesday Vander Weide not only enjoys racing her bikes, whether on gravel, cyclocross, singletrack or on the road, she's also worked for years at her local bike shop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and recently landed at job at one of the largest cycling companies in the world, the U.S. based SRAM! Being International Women's Month, I thought it was the perfect time to hear her story, not just how she...

Kelsi and Cole Ledbetter are the founders of the Iowa Gravel Project and Redfield Rock and Roll Gravel Race in Iowa. They recently took over a couple of Midwest classics: The Spotted Horse Ultra and the Iowa Gravel Classic. I was curious what led them down the road to not host just one gravel race, but now three, as well as the weekly rides with the Iowa Gravel Project. Information can be found on...

You ever question your own choice of tires? Me too. Especially on gravel. How wide? How much tread? How much pressure? Tubeless? So many choices, so little time. So at the OG of winter gravel races, CIRREM (a 16-year-old 64-mile hilly gravel race in the south central Iowa town of Cumming the final Saturday in February) Mr. Microphone came out after the race and we talked to people about their tire...

Jon Harp discovered competitive cycling as a teen in Chicagoland and made his way to the front of the echelon even securing a spot on a professional team in Europe. For reasons we'll let him tell, he hung up his bike and came back to the States. Eventually, however, he eventually discovered the joys of cycling on remote gravel roads, and loved it so much he was inspired to start a gravel and dirt...

Kate Coward's name is synonymous with winter ultras, especially on a fat bike. She's finished and won the Arrowhead 135 on bike, but also completed what is called one of the 50 hardest races on earth on both skis and foot. She's also won in her first go of the Iditarod Trail Invitational ITI350 as well as the Tuscobia 160 and Actif Epica. She recently finished fourth overall and first among the wo...

Justin McQuerry jumped back on the podcast this week to share his story of growing up with Type 1 Diabetes and how he manages that lifelong disease while still performing and competing at the highest level. Justin is a member of Team Novo Nordisk www.teamnovonordisk.com where every athlete has been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. With this team he competes in road races, criteriums and stage races...

The Rattlesnake Gravel Grind, March 21-24, 2024, is a weekend of gravel riding and racing in and around the west Texas town of Sweetwater. Camping, music, great food and incredible gravel routes make for an entire weekend event centered around Saturday's main event: A 30-, 70-, and 105-mile gravel race. We talked with Race Director David King, as well as the 2023 champion Justin McQuerry and Briti...

Carina Hamel and her husband Robby Ringer sought to create a reusable stainless steel water bottle built specifically to fit bike water bottle cages and give cyclists the flow they want. They worked with a NASA engineer and spent more than a year on design and the result was Bivo - a high performance water bottle made for bikes! After cutting back on plastic myself for a variety of reasons, I reac...

Mason Gravley is the host of a nearly decade old weekly podcast - The Adventure Sports Podcast- where he has conversations with all kinds of folks who’ve had amazing adventures! In addition to his podcast- he’s had some pretty awesome adventures himself- some of them on bikes! Tune in to his weekly episodes with people like Bear Grylls, Dave Weins and Kurt Refsnider at www.advenutesportspodcast.co...

Ian Boswell, aka Boz, spent several years racing at the highest level in the UCI World Tour with the likes of Bradly Wiggins, Chris Froome and Garaint Thomas on Team Sky. After nearly a decade in Europe, he made the decision to retire from road racing, move to rural Vermont and settle in with his young family. He kept a foot in the door of cycling and started a podcast: Breakfast with Boz as well...

Steve McGuire - my guide and mentor for the 2025 Arrowhead 135 Winter Fat Bike Ultra - recently returned from the oddly snowless Tuscobia 160 Winter Ultra and wanted to share the lessens he learned from this winter's event. The Tuscobia 160 starts in Rice Lake Wisconsin and follows the Tuscobia Trail through the Chequamgon/Nicolet National Forest the last weekend in December. Both a 160- as well a...

Jay Kennedy swung his years of experience in the hospitality industry into a business that combined that with his passion for cycling - the Thirsty Pigs Mobile Event Company. With Thirsty Pigs, he does everything from planning and leading multi-day cycling trips (such as the Marathon and Key West rides in Florida this February!) as well offering complete event planning services for corporate event...

Hannah Finchamp Otto has been racing since before she was 10, first as a triathlete and now, after two Xterra World Triathlon Championships as a top professional dirt cyclist racing in the Lifetime Grand Prix, finishing ninth in 2023, which included top-5 finishes in each of the three mountain bike events, even scoring a victory at the Leadville 100 in 2022! She recently scored a silver at the thr...

As part of my prep to start - and hopefully finish- the Arrowhead 135, a 135-mile winter fat bike ultra starting in International Falls, Minnesota in January, I wanted to talk to the director of the event: Ken Krueger. In this episode he talks about what it takes to prepare for and complete what has been described as one of the 50 hardest races in the world. For more information on this race and b...

As a cyclist I've competed in many disciplines, from road racing and criteriums to mountain bikes, gravel and cyclocross. Even a little track racing! But there's one discipline I've never done: A Winter Fat Bike Ultra. So, with the mentorship of Steve McGuire, a winter fatbike veteran (Alaska, Iceland, Wisconsin, Minnesota and more), I'm embarking on a journey to the 2025 Arrowhead 135. That is a...

The 2024 Iowa Gravel Series (IGS) is a seven-race (six for the guys!), 5-month gravel race series featuring 100-or 50-K races in all corners of Iowa. IGS Board members Ian Breitlow and Casey Ralston brought the unofficial IGS mobile office to Clive, Iowa the week before Thanksgiving to record this episode - You can find information on the series at www.iowagravelseries.com The races begin on May 1...

If you haven't been in the U.S. BMX community for the past 35 years, you may not recognize the name of Kittie Weston-Knauer. But if you HAVE been manualing the rollers or clearing the step-ups on the four straights of a BMX track, you probably just call her Miss Kittie! Suffice it to say that, even if you haven't been tail-whipping the table-tops, you might have seen a thing or two on this BMX Gra...

A gravel pro on the Mazda-Lauf Cycling Team, Chase Wark endured his way to the lead group of three at the wet 2023 Garmin Gravel Worlds, finishing second to three-time winner John Borstelmann. In addition to being fast on gravel, the ambitious and creative Minnesotan runs his cycling-related business from his SW Minnesota (read: Driftless region) home - which includes coaching, two gravel events a...

Torbjorn Roed followed his brother to the U.S. from Norway to go to school at Colorado Mesa University - and pursue, not just a degree, but also a career in cycling. While in college he landed a spot on one of the top amateur teams in the U.S. Above and Beyond Cancer - or ABC. It was this summer of 2023, while riding with ABC that he not only wore the leaders jersey at the Tour of the Gila, but al...